Stogie Geeks #277

Hosts

Stogies of the Week 1:30pm-2:00pm

La Rosa de Sandiego Maduro

CLE Habano

Montecristo Pilotico Pepe Mendez

Plasencia Cosecha 146

Viaje Zombie

Interview: Christian Luis Eiroa, C.L.E. Cigar Company 2:00pm-2:30pm

Christian Luis Eiroa was born the youngest of three children in Danli, Honduras in 1972. Just days after he was born, he was taken to the Jamastran farm. Christian grew up living with his family in a house that was converted from an old school. That very same house still exists today.
Christian’s summers were filled with odd jobs in fermentation and driving jeeps at the farms. As young as the age of 8 he was helping move tobacco around. It can be said that he was being indoctrinated to be in tobacco his entire life. It was during his formative years that tough love sank in with education being provided by boarding schools until he finally graduated from Riverside Military Academy in Gainesville, GA. Christian now serves on their Board of Visitors of his alma mater.
He received a degree in Business Administration from St. Thomas University in 1993, where he now serves on the Board of Entrepreneurship and a Master’s of International Business Administration from Nova Southeastern University in 1995.
It was in 1995 when Christian returned to Honduras to learn about tobacco and cigars. His training put him on the fast track to learning as much about the trade as possible as his timing coincided with the cigar boom of the 1990s. Understanding the business came natural to Christian since it was the environment in which he grew up.
As the cigar boom came to an end in 1997, the board decided to send Christian back to Miami to learn how to sell cigars under his lifetime friend and mentor, the late Sal Fontana. It was in 2000 that Christian made his mark with the launching of the Camacho Corojo. Although the cigar was extraordinary, it was the marketing behind it that made all the difference. He began to host all of his customers in Honduras where the entire process was explained week after week for seven years.
When Camacho Cigars was purchased in 2008, Christian remained with the company for the duration of the transition until 2011 when he decided to venture on his own. In July of 2012 Christian once again returned to the cigar industry with the launch of C.L.E. Cigar Company. This company was different than anything that had been done in the past and truly captivated Christian’s most consistent mentality breaking away from the norm and always asking one question: “Why not?”

“You don’t choose your family. They are God’s gift to you, as you are to them.” – Desmond Tutu